In the process of shipping one or more articles, products or other objects in a container, such as boxes/cartons, from one location to another, a protective packaging material or other type of dunnage material is typically placed in the shipping container to fill any voids and/or to cushion the item during the shipping process. Converted paper dunnage material is an exemplary protective packaging material. The conversion may be accomplished by a cushioning conversion machine that typically causes inward turning of the lateral edges of sheet stock material to form a continuous strip of cushioning.
For some applications, particularly when blocking or bracing a relatively large and/or heavy item during shipping, the strip of cushioning may be “wound up” into a coil configuration to form a “coil” of cushioning product. The coil of cushioning product might then be placed in the shipping container and the large/heavy item placed thereon, and another coil of cushioning product might be placed on top of the item, if necessary or desired.
An exemplary system that includes a device, i.e., a coiler, for automatically forming a more consistent coil of cushioning product is described in International Patent Application No. PCT/US98/22726, published under Publication No. WO 99/21702, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. As therein disclosed, a taping device can be used to secure the trailing end of the coiled strip to the coil, thus facilitating handling of the coil as it is removed from the coiler and placed in a container.
While such a taping device has provided an acceptable means of securement, further improvements in means for maintaining the strip of cushioning in a coiled configuration would be desirable.